Patents Assigned to Silicon Motion, Inc.
  • Publication number: 20240094915
    Abstract: A method for accessing a flash memory module includes: selecting a block in the flash memory module; selecting a specific encoding/decoding setting from a plurality of sets of encoding/decoding settings at least according to an erase count of the block, wherein the plurality of sets of encoding/decoding settings include different error correction code (ECC) lengths, respectively; utilizing the specific encoding/decoding setting to encode a data to generate an encoded data; and writing the encoded data into the block.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 31, 2022
    Publication date: March 21, 2024
    Applicant: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventors: Chia-Chi Liang, Hsiao-Chang Yen, Tsu-Han Lu
  • Publication number: 20240096411
    Abstract: A method for performing memory access of a Flash cell of a Flash memory includes: performing a series of sensing operations respectively corresponding to a plurality of sensing voltages, wherein a sensing voltage of a specific sensing operation of the series of sensing operations has a sensing voltage determined according to a result of an initial sensing operation of the series of sensing operations; determining a threshold voltage of the Flash cell according to at least a digital value generated by the series of sensing operations; and using the determined threshold voltage to perform soft decoding of the Flash cell.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 28, 2023
    Publication date: March 21, 2024
    Applicant: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventors: Tsung-Chieh Yang, Hsiao-Te Chang, Wen-Long Wang
  • Patent number: 11933847
    Abstract: The invention relates to an apparatus and a system for debugging a solid-state disk (SSD) device. The apparatus includes a Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) add-on board; and a Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi includes a General-Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) interface (I/F), coupled to the JTAG add-on board; and a processing unit, coupled to the GPIO I/F. The processing unit is arranged operably to: simulate to issue a plurality of JTAG command through the GPIO I/F to the SSD device for dumping data generated by the SSD device during operation from the SSD device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignee: SILICON MOTION, INC.
    Inventors: Han-Chih Tsai, Ming-Kun Chung
  • Patent number: 11935595
    Abstract: A flash memory scheme simplifies the command sequences transmitted between a flash memory device and a flash memory controller into a simplified command sequence so as to reduce the waiting time period of the command transmission and improve the performance of flash memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignee: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventors: Tsu-Han Lu, Hsiao-Chang Yen
  • Patent number: 11929764
    Abstract: For an encoder for use in a flash memory controller, partial parity blocks generated in the encoder are divided into two parts for further operations, wherein a number of partial parity block(s) of the first part generated earlier is less than a number of partial parity block(s) of the second part. The encoder can reduce the hardware required for the circulant convolution calculation in the encoder, and has high efficiency. In addition, by converting a parity-check matrix to generate an isomorphic matrix, some components in the encoder and the decoder can be further omitted, so as to further reduce the manufacturing cost.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2024
    Assignee: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventor: Duen-Yih Teng
  • Publication number: 20240080030
    Abstract: The present invention provides a fractional frequency divider, wherein the fractional frequency divider includes a plurality of registers, a counter, a control signal generator and a clock gating circuit. Regarding the plurality of registers, at least a portion of the registers are set to have values The counter is configured to sequentially generate a plurality of counter values, wherein the plurality of counter values correspond to the at least a portion of the registers, respectively, and the plurality of counter values are generated repeatedly The control signal generator is configured to generate a control signal based on the received counter value and the value of the corresponding register. The clock gating circuit is configured to refer to the control signal to mask or not mask an input clock signal to generate an output clock signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 31, 2023
    Publication date: March 7, 2024
    Applicant: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventors: Tien-Hsing Yao, Chun-Cheng Lee, Sheng-l Hsu
  • Patent number: 11922044
    Abstract: A solution for deteriorated non-volatile memory is shown. When a controller determines that raw data read from the non-volatile memory is undesirable data, the controller performs safety moving of valid data of an erasure unit that contains the raw data to safely move the valid data of the erasure unit, wherein the erasure unit is a high-risk block, and the raw data in the non-volatile memory is regarded as being in a deteriorated physical address. Prior to being moved in the safety moving, the raw data is changed so that it is different from the undesirable data. In an exemplary embodiment, the undesirable data is all-1's data or all-0's data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: SILICON MOTION, INC.
    Inventors: Yu-Hao Chang, Yu-Han Hsiao, Po-Sheng Chou
  • Patent number: 11916569
    Abstract: A flash memory storage management method includes: providing a flash memory module including single-level-cell (SLC) blocks and at least one multiple-level-cell block such as MLC block, TLC block, or QLC block; classifying data to be programmed into groups of data; respectively executing SLC programing and RAID-like error code encoding to generate corresponding parity check codes, to program the groups of data and corresponding parity check codes to the SLC blocks; when completing program of the SLC blocks, performing an internal copy to program the at least one multiple-level-cell block by sequentially reading and writing the groups of data and corresponding parity check codes from the SLC blocks to the multiple-level-cell block according to a storage order of the SLC blocks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventors: Tsung-Chieh Yang, Hong-Jung Hsu
  • Patent number: 11914901
    Abstract: A method of a flash memory controller to be used in a storage device and coupled to a flash memory device of the storage device through a specific communication interface includes: using a set-feature signal, which carries a set-feature command, a macro execution feature address, and corresponding macro execution parameter information, as a macro execution signal and transmitting the macro execution signal to the flash memory device to make the flash memory device execute multiple set-feature operations respectively having unique information defined by the corresponding macro execution parameter information carried in the macro execution signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventors: Tsu-Han Lu, Hsiao-Chang Yen
  • Patent number: 11914873
    Abstract: A flash memory controller for controlling a flash memory module includes a communication interface for receiving a first data and a second data; and a processing circuit for dynamically controlling a data writing mode of the flash memory module according to an amount of stored data in the flash memory module. If the amount of stored data in the flash memory module is less than a first threshold when the communication interface receives the first data, the processing circuit controls the flash memory module so that the first data is written into the first data block under an one-bit-per-cell mode. If the amount of stored data in the flash memory module is greater than the first threshold when the communication interface receives the second data, the processing circuit controls the flash memory module so that the second data is written into the second data block under a two-bit-per-cell mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventors: Tsung-Chieh Yang, Chun-Chieh Kuo, Ching-Hui Lin, Yang-Chih Shen
  • Publication number: 20240061745
    Abstract: A flash memory method includes: classifying data into a plurality of groups of data; respectively executing error code encoding to generate first corresponding parity check code to store the groups of data and first corresponding parity check code into flash memory module as first blocks; reading out the groups of data from first blocks; executing error correction and de-randomize operation upon read out data to generate de-randomized data; executing randomize operation upon de-randomized data according to a set of seeds to generate randomized data; performing error code encoding upon randomized data to generate second corresponding parity check code; and, storing randomized data and second corresponding parity check code into flash memory module as second block; a cell of first block is used for storing data of first bit number which is different from second bit number corresponding to a cell of second block.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 31, 2023
    Publication date: February 22, 2024
    Applicant: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventors: Tsung-Chieh Yang, Hong-Jung Hsu, Jian-Dong Du
  • Patent number: 11907047
    Abstract: A data storage device, and an error tolerance selecting method thereof which includes: writing data to data blocks of the data storage device; reading written data of the data blocks as read data; comparing the read data and the written data of each data column in the data blocks, and calculating a number of error bits in each chunk including a plurality of data columns accordingly; calculating a difference value between the number of error bits in the chunk and a first threshold value to store the difference value in an error tolerance list; and selecting a largest difference value in the error tolerance list as an error tolerance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2024
    Assignee: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventor: Sheng-Yuan Huang
  • Patent number: 11899945
    Abstract: A method for performing communications specification version control of a memory device in predetermined communications architecture with aid of compatibility management, associated apparatus and computer-readable medium are provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventors: Hong-Ren Fang, Chun-Che Yang, Cheng-Yu Lee, Te-Kai Wang
  • Patent number: 11901912
    Abstract: A memory controller for use in a data storage device is provided. A low-density parity check (LDPC) process performed by the memory controller includes an initial phase, a decoding phase, and an output phase. The memory controller includes a variable-node circuit and a check-node circuit. During the initial phase, the variable-node circuit performs the following steps: obtaining a channel value, that is read from a flash memory, from a channel-value memory; transmitting the channel value to the check-node circuit to calculate a syndrome; and in response to the syndrome not being 0, setting a value of a register corresponding to each entry of a plurality of entries in a variable-node memory, and entering the decoding phase.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: SILICON MOTION, INC.
    Inventors: Shiuan-Hao Kuo, Zhen-U Liu
  • Patent number: 11899977
    Abstract: A method for performing access management of a memory device with aid of serial number assignment timing control and associated apparatus are provided. The method includes: managing a plurality of spare blocks with a spare pool; popping a first block from the spare pool to be a host data block, and performing first subsequent operations, wherein the host data block is arranged to receive data from a host device, and serial number assignment of the host data block corresponds to a timing of fully programing the host data block; and popping a second block from the spare pool to be a garbage collection (GC) destination block, and performing second subsequent operations, wherein the GC destination block is arranged to receive data from a GC source block during a GC procedure, and serial number assignment of the GC destination block corresponds to a timing of starting using the GC destination block.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventors: Wen-Chi Hong, Hsin-Hsiang Tseng
  • Patent number: 11899974
    Abstract: A method for performing automatic setting control of a memory device in predetermined communications architecture with aid of auxiliary setting management and associated apparatus are provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventor: Han-Cheng Huang
  • Patent number: 11901961
    Abstract: A method, for calibrating signal processing devices in an interface circuit coupled to a host device, comprises: negotiating with the host device in a link up process about an operation mode for the interface circuit to operate in a calibration procedure; and calibrating a characteristic value of a first signal processing device and a characteristic value of a second signal processing device in the calibration procedure. The first signal processing device is disposed on a receiving signal processing path and configured to process a received signal and the second signal processing device is disposed on a transmitting signal processing path and configured to process a transmitting signal, and the interface circuit is configured to operate based on the operation mode in the calibration procedure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventor: Fu-Jen Shih
  • Publication number: 20240036974
    Abstract: An exemplary method for reading data stored in a flash memory includes: selecting an initial gate voltage combination from a plurality of predetermined gate voltage combination options; controlling a plurality of memory units in the flash memory according to the initial gate voltage combination, and reading a plurality of bit sequences; performing a codeword error correction upon the plurality of bit sequences, and determining if the codeword error correction successful; if the codeword error correction is not successful, determining an electric charge distribution parameter; determining a target gate voltage combination corresponding to the electric charge distribution parameter by using a look-up table; and controlling the plurality of memory units to read a plurality of updated bit sequences according to the target gate voltage combination.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 11, 2023
    Publication date: February 1, 2024
    Applicant: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventor: Tsung-Chieh Yang
  • Publication number: 20240036738
    Abstract: A method for performing link management of a memory device in predetermined communications architecture with aid of handshaking phase transition control and associated apparatus are provided. The method may include: utilizing at least one upper layer controller of a transmission interface circuit to turn on a physical layer (PHY) circuit of the transmission interface circuit, for starting establishing a link between a host device and the memory device; before entering a first handshaking phase, utilizing the PHY circuit to receive any first incoming data sent from the host device to determine whether the any first incoming data indicates that the host device is in a corresponding first handshaking phase; and in response to the any first incoming data indicating that the host device is in the corresponding first handshaking phase, utilizing the PHY circuit to send first outgoing data that is equal to first predetermined data to the host device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 26, 2022
    Publication date: February 1, 2024
    Applicant: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventors: Bo-Chang Ye, Kuo-Cyuan Kuo, Chih-Chiang Chen
  • Publication number: 20240036739
    Abstract: A method for performing data fragmentation reduction control of a memory device in a predetermined communications architecture with aid of fragmentation information detection, associated apparatus and computer-readable medium are provided.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 27, 2022
    Publication date: February 1, 2024
    Applicant: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventor: Po-Yi Shih